


Let's Try Again

by hanktalkin



Category: Edda of Burdens - Elizabeth Bear
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Drinking, End of the World, F/M, Polyamory, Rough Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 08:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12317580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanktalkin/pseuds/hanktalkin
Summary: After the death of the Technomancer, Selene and Cathoair share some downtime





	Let's Try Again

The Ash & Thorn was empty, stale and lifeless much like the rest of the city. Much like the the beer Cathoair had finished long ago, leaving him to roll his bowl along its bottom while he stared listlessly at empty tables. The wood against wood sent a sensation up his arm, pleasing but passionless, a perfect combination for idle hands.

At first, when the Well began to die, the Ash & Thorn had swarmed with patrons. All were ready for drink or comfort or entertainment, anything to distract while the world ended. Now there weren't even enough for that. Those that were still healthy enough to go out didn't, too busy caring for loved ones, or simply without the will to.

Cathoair understood the feeling. Murie had never mentioned the bleakness that came with his newfound immortality.

Between his dour thoughts and the dead air, the ringing of the bell startled him so much he dropped his bowl, sending it clattering across the floor.

"I am sorry," Selene said, watching him scramble after it. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"It's fine," he said, standing back up. "Better getting off this stool than whatever else I thought I was doing."

The unman came to the Ash & Thorn often. Well, it seemed often to Cathoair. She spent most of her time on the Tower organizing the last of the Technomancer's people. He didn't envy her. The place was a wealth of knowledge, the last remnants of a world that would never be able to recognize its worth. How the hell anyone could try to hold the responsibility of that, he couldn't imagine.

And yet Selene seemed to be making do. She must be, since she still found time to come into the Well and talk to him every now and again.

"Can I get you something?" he asked, sweeping and arm to the bar.

"You know I can't get drunk," she reminded him. The Snow Leopard swished her tail, and Cathoair had become familiar enough with her body language to recognize she wasn't annoyed with him. "But if you are suggesting it because it is necessary for a smooth social interaction, I'll take a beer."

He laughed. Maybe at one point he would have found that to be a bit uncouth, but he'd come to find the unman had a unique sense of humor.

He took her bowl and stepped behind the bar. Aethelred usually liked to keep him out, but these were strange times, and the bartender didn't care as much as he used to.

Plus, he was gone somewhere, so what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

After Cathoair had poured himself on two, they sat back at the bar, Selene's head at a slight tilt that let him know she was relaxed. Or, as relaxed as anyone could be, considering.

The made small talk, the air in the bar not quite as heavy when it was filled with chatter. Cathoair still missed its busy times, though. He missed the hunt for potential customers, the bits of conversation you could collect just by keeping an open ear. But most of all he missed the fight. It just wasn't the same without an audience, even though Hrothgar would indulge him a practice match every now and again. There was no yelling, no jeering. No life to the motions Cathoair's body still knew how to make.

"You are thinking about the fight again, aren't you?" Selene said, pulling him from his thoughts.

He must have been staring at the ring, not responding when she spoke to him. A telling sign.

"I suppose," he admitted. "Or trying not to think about it, more like."

And it was _the_ fight they were talking about now. The one that hovered at the back of his mind every time he took Hrothgar in the ring. The one that he could still feel when he spent a night alone, the one that made his palms itch.

He rolled his bowl across the bar again.

Selene watched him quietly. "I never gave you my condolences. For what happened." She set a hand lightly on his forearm, sheathed claws just above pricking skin. "I'm sorry Cathey."

"...Thank you," he replied softly.

"Would you like to go back to talking about the end of the world instead?"

He chuckled, even through the tightness in his throat. "No, I can talk. At least I think I can. It's been a while." He kicked a bare foot against the ground. "She's...it's still not quite set in."

"You and her were...together, correct?"

Cathoair hummed in agreement.

"But you are still with the blue one. Hrothgar."

He nodded. They'd never been as close, not in comparison to Astrid, but Hrothgar was still a part of him.

"And Murie..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Cathoair said. “I’m a slut.”

“That’s not what I was saying.”

Cathoair sighed. He become desensitized to that usual comment, but things had changed in the past months. Old wounds opened. People that were supposed to share your heart were gone.

“And yet you still kissed me,” Selene finished her train of thought.

It was an idle statement, and Cathoair blinked at her candidness. He hadn’t thought about that moment since it happened, the memory swallowed in the glory of the Technomancer’s palace and all that happened after. Not that what had caused him to take such an action had ever gone away.

“Oh yeah,” he mused. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”

A soft purr emanated from the leopard. Most likely of amusement. “Did it make that little of an impression? And here I suspected it was more than friendly.”

Cathoair was surprised the direction the conversation was going, but not resistant. Better to talk about happier things when things like Astrid and the death of the world were all he seemed to think about these days.

“Eh, maybe,” he said, nudging her lightly in the shoulder. “I may have been a little misleading about my motives at the time.”

“Mmhm,” Selene replied, her lips having difficulty forming the sound but getting the sarcasm out all the same. “Setting up so you could sneak another one in at a future date?”

Cathoair leaned against the bar, a smirk on his face as he watched her ears twitch. “Well. Now I’m painted into a corner. Might as well let the cat out of the bag.”

Selene snorted at the turn of phrase, but it didn’t last once Cathoair leaned in and kissed her again. It was just as strange as before, the soft tufts of her lips like kissing a full-faced beard, and her teeth pricking against him threatened to draw blood. But that was sort of the appeal, wasn’t it. It was intoxicating, more than the weak beer he’d served himself over the past day.

This time, with Selene expecting the nearman pressing against her face, she didn’t react quiet so quickly. Instead, she let Cathoair lean into her, only twitching her whiskers once he pulled back.

She reached around the back of his neck with a sheathed hand, carefully bringing him forward and licking the top of his head. He snorted, and she did it again, her tongue so rough it pulled strands from his plait.

“Oh this again,” he said in mock irritation.

Selene heard it, and purred louder, increasing her licks until she was practically grooming him. He laughed, lightly struggling to get out of her grasp, and received a sharp tongue on the ear for his reward.

By the time Selene let him go, he was red in the face from laughing, and strands of black hair stood up straight on his head.

“We’ve invented the worst kind of cultural exchange,” he told her.

She purred, and picked up her bowl of beer. She looked completely self-satisfied, in the way only cats can. He sighed, looking over the open bar once again. It would be good to do that again some time. Especially if it made him forget the world, just for a while. 


End file.
